Airplane Inspection Inquiry Turns to Senator's Wife

By NEIL A. LEWIS

Published: May 7, 1995

Correction Appended

WASHINGTON, May 5—
Government investigators have obtained evidence that Linda H. Daschle, second in command at the Federal Aviation Administration, may have used her position to help her husband, a United States Senator, reduce safety inspections of an air-charter company owned by a family friend, Government officials have said.

Mrs. Daschle is married to Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the Senate Democratic leader, who has tried for more than two years to eliminate the inspections that the Forest Service carries out in addition to those by the F.A.A.

The role of the aviation agency in Mr. Daschle's efforts has been the subject of a wide-ranging investigation by the Inspector General's office in the Transportation Department.

According to Transportation Department officials, at least two senior F.A.A. officials have said Mrs. Daschle broke a promise to withdraw from cases involving her husband. They said she played a role in quashing a proposed F.A.A. experiment that would have trained Forest Service flight inspectors in South Dakota to conduct inspections for the F.A.A.

Senator Daschle began working to remove the Forest Service's authority over air safety after its inspectors had consistently complained that a carrier in Rapid City, S.D., B & L Aviation, was shoddily run and should be barred from obtaining Government contracts. B & L is owned by Murl Bellew, a friend of the Daschles who taught the Senator how to fly.

Mrs. Daschle, through a spokeswoman, strongly denied having become involved in any way. The Inspector General in the Transportation Department, Mary F. Schiavo, declined to comment on the investigation.

The accounts from F.A.A. officials about Mrs. Daschle broaden the questions about Mr. Daschle and B & L Aviation. Although the issue has not attracted great attention outside South Dakota, many of Mr. Daschle's colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans, have had intensive private discussions about whether it has the potential to affect his standing as minority leader.

The questions arose after a B & L plane chartered by the Indian Health Service crashed in February 1994 in a snowstorm in Minot, N.D. The crash killed the pilot and his passengers, three doctors on their way to a a clinic at a reservation.

In an interview the doctors' wives questioned whether Mr. Daschle had improperly used his influence to help Mr. Bellew. The women have also written to the Senate Ethics Committee seeking an investigation into Mr. Daschle's actions. Several Republican senators said in interviews they were trying to decide how to respond to that request.

Mr. Daschle has insisted that his efforts were not intended to help Mr. Bellew. Instead, he said, he was just trying to streamline Government by eliminating duplication.

The F.A.A., as the principal aviation regulator, inspects and certifies all charter companies. But because the Forest Service often charters planes, it has its own inspectors and procedures.

Mr. Daschle said he acted after Mr. Bellew had complained that having both agencies inspect his planes was wasteful. Mr. Daschle pushed legislation that would have concentrated inspections in the F.A.A. and eliminated the Forest Service's role. He said he had always insisted that any consolidation not compromise safety.

When Mr. Daschle began his effort the F.A.A. was regularly giving B & L good reports, even though Forest Service inspectors complained that they had found numerous violations and identified the company as the only one that they dealt with that had such chronic problems.

The National Transportation Safety Board said the crash in February 1994 was largely caused by pilot error. The board listed several problems with the flight that were similar to the Forest Service complaints about B & L.

Some officials told investigators that they believed that Mrs. Daschle had followed her promise to withdraw, but others said she had participated at some crucial points.

At least two senior F.A.A. officials said Mrs. Daschle had worked to quash a proposed program to train the Forest Service inspectors in South Dakota to conduct F.A.A. inspections, as part of a move to eliminate duplication. That proposal might have taken care of duplication, but it would have left Mr. Bellew still dealing with the Forest Service workers whom he had found troublesome.

Mrs. Daschle said through her spokeswoman that when she learned of that plan "she immediately recused herself and had no involvement with the proposal."

The Inspector General, Ms. Schiavo, opened the inquiry in February, after an F.A.A. inspector had said that other officials in his agency had destroyed documents sought by the three widows for their suit against B & L. The F.A.A. is part of the Transportation Department.

The F.A.A. inspector, Gary M. Baxter, said he learned that the papers were destroyed to protect Mr. and Mrs. Daschle, each of whom has denied knowing about the destruction. Mr. Baxter had been in charge of collecting the documents to fulfill a request from the widows' lawyers.

The Inspector General's investigation initially focused on Mr. Baxter's accusations, but it has widened to Mrs. Daschle's possible role in helping her husband.

The chief spokesman of the Transportation Department, Steven Akey, an assistant to Secretary Federico F. Pena, said if there was a determination that an employee had violated a recusal that was taken for reasons of ethics the employee could face disciplinary or corrective action like a suspension, reassignment, counseling or a reprimand.

A Democratic senator who insisted on anonymity said most of his colleagues had been inclined to give Mr. Daschle the benefit of the doubt. That is because the South Dakotan is generally well liked by his colleagues and because they are particularly sensitive to how efforts to aid constituents can be portrayed as favoritism.

Last week the Forest Service announced that for safety reasons it was no longer using B & L.

Photo: The night that Tom Daschle won election to the Senate in 1986, his wife, Linda, now a Federal aviation official, was at his side. (Argus Leader)

Correction: May 17, 1995, Wednesday Because of an editing error, an article on May 7 about Linda H. Daschle, the deputy administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, included incorrect attribution in some editions for the statement that two senior F.A.A. officials had told investigators that Mrs. Daschle tried to reduce aviation inspections for an air charter company owned by a family friend. The information reached The Times from Transportation Department officials, not from department investigators.